The Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security will now consider approval for U.S. telecom exports to Sudan on a case-by-case basis, rather than keeping in place the agency’s previous policy of denial for such exports, it said in a final rule in Wednesday's Federal Register. BIS also will expand the consumer communications devices (CDD) license exception for U.S. telecom exports to the Sudanese private sector, it said. The CCD license exception, authorized in 2009 but restricted to exports to Cuba, covers shipments to Sudan starting Wednesday. Most of the items covered under the CCD don’t require licenses for export to most countries, BIS said in the final rule. BIS published this rule alongside a concurrent Treasury Department rule. Treasury's decision on the export of hardware and software “incident to personal communications” to Sudan comes "after years of campaigning from Sudanese and international activists," Electronic Frontier Foundation Director-International Freedom of Expression Jillian York wrote on EFF's blog Wednesday. "The sanctions restrict the export of everything from MOOCs [massive open online courses] to mobile phones, harming innovation, access to information, and development. For a country like Sudan, where the number of Internet users has grown from around 400,000 to more than 8 million in less than a decade, the forthcoming influx of technology can mean a world of difference for average consumers."
Satellite companies and manufacturers supported the Obama Administration’s draft proposals to update the satellite export control regime in comments to the Department of Commerce Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS). The proposals address the transfer of satellite systems and their components from the U.S. munitions list (USML) to the Commerce Control List (CCL). Items controlled under the USML are critical to national security, while the CCL is less restrictive and includes items that are less critical. Comments were due this week and posted Thursday (http://1.usa.gov/1aevu9E). SES, Intelsat, Boeing and other companies approved of the proposals but asked for clarifications to export control classification numbers (ECCN) that identify items.
A U.K. government request for input on a draft EU measure on network and information security sparked a warning Friday from a conservative think tank that failure by the information technology industry to respond could leave important Internet issues in the hands of the euroskeptic U.K. Independence Party (UKIP). The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) consultation document (http://bit.ly/Zi7eSG) seeks comment on a Feb. 7 European Commission legislative proposal (http://bit.ly/123IEH0) aimed at ensuring a “high common level of network and information security.” The directive would require EU countries to develop national cybersecurity strategies, establish computer emergency response teams, and share information with each other. It would mandate that public and private operators of critical infrastructures take steps to manage security risks and report incidents “that have a significant impact on the security of core services they provide” to national regulators.
The U.K. government must urgently investigate the sale of hacking software by a British company to repressive regimes, Privacy International said Thursday. In November, the privacy watchdog sent Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC), the department responsible for enforcing export rules and policies, extensive information showing that Gamma International’s FinSpy hacking software was being exported without a license to administrations with “dismal human rights records,” PI said. The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) confirmed that such products fall within the scope of the U.K. export control regime, and notified the company, PI said. But despite that fact that FinSpy has been on the market for six years, and that businesses are legally obligated to seek export license classifications, Gamma has only submitted a control list classification inquiry asking whether it needs an export license for the software, PI said. Under the law, Gamma must apply for country-specific licenses in order to sell to customers outside the EU, but BIS confirmed it hasn’t received any applications for such licenses, PI said. Gamma is known to have sold the product to Bahrain and Turkmenistan, where it was used to target dissidents for harassment, arrest and even torture, it said. BIS’s acknowledgement that FinSpy exports should be controlled is welcome, but it’s now up to HMRC to show it can “quickly and effectively lay down the law,” PI Head of Research Eric King said. Although PI asked HMRC for a response within 14 days of its letter indicating whether it had launched or was about to launch an investigation of Gamma, there’s been nothing yet, the organization said. HMRC said it can’t comment on individual cases. Gamma didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Export control reform faces difficulty in balancing business and national security concerns, said Acting Secretary of Commerce Rebecca Blank. It’s “important that our export control reform efforts don’t get in the way of our innovation efforts, and whenever possible, don’t get in the way of our production and export opportunities,” she said last week at a meeting of the President’s Export Council Subcommittee on Export Administration. The Bureau of Industry and Security has seven proposed rules awaiting approval from the Office of Management and Budget, said Eric Hirschhorn, BIS undersecretary for industry and security. The interagency review process for the rules is done, but OMB has other agencies’ rules to review as well, he said. BIS hopes to have the unified USXPORTS IT platform in initial operability for the State Department and the Commerce Department sometime this fall, Hirschhorn said. The first required notification to Congress of movement of items from the U.S. munitions list (USML) to the commerce control list will hopefully occur this fall, but depends in part on how quickly the review of the specially designed definition progresses, he said. BIS also continues pushing to restore presidential authority to determine export controls on satellites, currently controlled on the USML per statutory mandate, but the House legislation to accomplish this goal still includes provisions that could “delay or cripple” the Export Control Reform initiative, Hirschhorn said. This year, the House passed the FY13 National Defense Authorization bill, which includes a provision that reduces the cost for U.S. manufacturers to export satellites and components (CD May 21 p3). BIS is pushing for constructive changes to these provisions before the national defense authorization bill, which contains the relevant provisions, reaches President Barack Obama’s desk, which will probably be late in this calendar year, Hirschhorn said.
Some provisions of the House version of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2013, passed on May 18, “could cripple and certainly would delay substantially the overall Export Control Reform initiative,” said Undersecretary of the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) Eric Hirschhorn at a meeting of the President’s Export Council Subcommittee on Export Administration on Monday. Hirschhorn said he hopes the first ECR rules will be finalized this summer or fall.
New FCC ex parte rules were violated at least 11 times since taking effect June 1, a Communications Daily review of all filings and the agency’s own checks found. Some filings were made late -- from a day in many instances to a few weeks -- and others didn’t contain enough information on what was discussed during lobbying meetings. The filings were made by companies and associations big and small. They covered proceedings ranging from changing the Universal Service Fund to pay for broadband deployment to retransmission consent, ISP speeds, disabilities access legislation passed in 2010 and getting low-power TV stations to fully vacate the 700 MHz band for wireless broadband in the small portion they occupy.
The U.S. will restrict export of telecommunications equipment and other technologies “that could contribute to China’s military modernization,” according to updated China Dual-Use Export Regulations announced Friday by the Commerce Department. Blocked are phased array antennae, radio gear using quadrature-amplitude modulation, telecommunications equipment built to operate outside normal temperatures, some avionics production and test equipment and certain airborne communications and inertial navigation systems, the department said. “The Chinese side believes the U.S. side’s insistence on issuing these rules without fully hearing Chines opinions is inappropriate, and violates the cooperative spirit,” China’s Commerce Ministry said on its Web site, adding that such restrictions “will damage the Chinese side’s effort to expand imports from the United States.”
A “denial order” filed by the U.S. Bureau of Industry & Security (BIS) against Canada’s Swiss Telecom Communications “is an extraordinarily severe sanction” with widespread implications, Harris, Wiltshire & Grannis said Mon. in a special regulatory advisory. The BIS issued the order against the Canadian company last week after deciding it violated U.S. embargo regulations and export controls by shipping telecom equipment to Iran. “A supplier in the U.S. could not ship uncontrolled telecommunications equipment or parts, directly or indirectly, to Swiss Telecom,” the report said. “No person in the U.S., Canada, or elsewhere, could supply replacement parts, service, or even certain help-line support for U.S.-origin equipment previously acquired by Swiss Telecom. An office equipment store in Canada could not sell even U.S. sourced file cabinets.” The advisory said Swiss Telecom could have avoided the severe sanctions had it negotiated with BIS. “BIS uses this sanction sparingly,” the firm said. “The order against Swiss Telecom states that the company did not file an answer to the charges.”
Revised national security export controls for microprocessors used in mass market cellphones, wireless base stations, personal computers and digital assistants went into effect Jan. 14. Final rule implemented changes in list of dual-use technologies maintained by govts. participating in Wassanaar Arrangement, Commerce Dept.’s Bureau of Industry & Security (BIS) said. Removal of export licensing requirements for general purpose microprocessors has become increasingly necessary in light of “continuous, rapid increase in microprocessor capabilities” and incremental modifications needed to keep pace with those changes, BIS said. Those frequent efforts had been deemed necessary “to avoid expending limited export control resources on mass market items,” it said. Remaining in effect are restrictions on exports and re-exports of microprocessors capable of 6,500 million theoretical operations per sec. -- MTOPS -- to terrorist-designated nations. BIS inserted new section in export rules that clarified restrictions and licensing requirements for technologies with military uses. Commerce Dept. said new regulation was “necessary to ensure that U.S. industry can compete on a level playing field in the growing international market for microprocessors, while protecting vital U.S. national security interests.”